Margaret Ellen Fox

Case background and investigation

Margaret Ellen Fox was born on February 4, 1960, and lived with her family in Burlington City, New Jersey. In June 1974 she was 14 and an eighth-grade student at St. Paul School in Burlington, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. She placed an advertisement in a newspaper offering her services as a babysitter.

A man who gave his name as John Marshall answered the advertisement by telephone and said he needed someone to look after a child. According to Wikipedia's account of the case, the meeting was postponed more than once before he arranged to meet her in Mount Holly, about seven miles from her home, and said he would be driving a red Volkswagen. The FBI states that the telephone number he had given was later traced to a pay phone at a supermarket; news reports place that store in Lumberton.

On the morning of Monday, June 24, 1974, Fox left a note for her parents saying where she was going, the Inquirer reported. Her younger brother saw her off, and she boarded a bus in Burlington at about 8:40 a.m. Witnesses reported seeing her near Mill and High streets in Mount Holly. She did not return home and has not been seen since.

She was described as about 5 feet 2 inches tall and 105 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. According to ABC News, she was wearing a light blue floral long-sleeved shirt, maroon flared jeans with a yellow patch on one knee and brown sandals, along with a gold necklace and a charm bracelet, and she carried an eyeglass case with a cartoon design.

Investigators began recording calls to the family's home. Within hours of her disappearance, a caller demanded $10,000 for her return, telling her mother that the sum might be a lot of money but that her daughter's life was worth it. CBS News reported that authorities could not determine whether the caller was the man she had gone to meet or someone exploiting news of the disappearance. No one was identified. Wikipedia also records a false confession in 1976.

On June 24, 2019, the 45th anniversary, the FBI's Newark office, Burlington City police and the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office released a version of the recording that had been enhanced with newer technology, and the FBI announced a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest or conviction. The FBI's listing for the case remained active when last updated in March 2026, and no arrest has been announced.